This is something I have been very curious about lately: HOW hypertrophy focused training actually affect the kind of mass gains you make?
When one is in a caloric surplus and gaining weight, how does running a hypertrophy focused program vs a non-hypertrophy focused program like a pure strength program affect one’s gainz? What processes does it affect?
I figure if your surplus is such that you would gain 500 grams a week, your training focus does not change this. What I can see being left is the ratio between muscle/fat mass gained with a hypertrophy focused program leading to a more favorable ratio.
Am I on the right track? I wanted to ask this on an IG live some time, but I’m Danish so they are hard to catch.
Thanks for the post and thoughtful question. It’s certainly an issue people are very interested in!
In short, I think that a good strength program is likely to have a significant amount of work that drives hypertrophy in the muscle groups responsible for strength performance in a particular task, e.g. a squat 1RM.
A hypertrophy-focused program tends to have less specificity than a strength program and can therefore use a number of different non-specific exercises, rep ranges, etc. to stimulate the muscle.
I wouldn’t expect a hypertrophy-focused program to produce more hypertrophy in the muscle groups worked than a good strength program early on, but later in a trainee’s career that probably changes as the lifter may need all the extra work included in a hypertrophy program.